[Spoilers] Dreylin's short visit to a late Era

[OT4E]

REM got Physics, so he will probably go in 1 more golden age.
Pindicator got 1 more GE.

PS: your EPs are still going to REM.

[Dreylin]

REM got Physics, so he will probably go in 1 more golden age.
Pindicator got 1 more GE.

Ah well, kind-of surprised that it lasted as long as it did. I'm not sure it really changes the strategy much though; I think we still use the GS to bulb Physics and we still want Biology next since our whole empire is built on Food = Specialists = potential Hammers via the Whip or Rifles via the Draft.

Here are some things I've been thinking about:

Newly planted cities will not have many/any improved tiles to work so they need to whip a Culture building and the start building ships. We need ships. In the two Island cities I'm thinking of Libraries rather than Theatres; they will be working the Silver soon enough and probably a fair amount of Coast, so it should pay off the additional hammers. Also, we should be leveraging our cheap Universities more.

Silkmoths needs Library-Uni after the Granary. It has Gold and we want to diversify our Science cities.

Geese is probably best suited to being our Settler whipping post; it can grow building ships and then 5pop whip a Settler every 6ish turns.

I don't think we need anything other than Llamas, Rabbits and Cats building land units for now; we'll use the Draft to stock up on Rifles in the border cities and free up some of the Cats from MP duty to move towards the borders. I think we need 2-3 Cats in range of each of our borders to support defensive efforts. I've also started loading the new Cavs onto our Galleons to hold them 7 from Ducks as a rapid reaction force. From there we can drop them either in Geese or in Goats' Fort and they reach just about anywhere in the empire in 2t.

I think we need to push the GPP in Llamas to overtake Chickens and generate the next GP after Goats. Long-term Llamas is not going to be running a bunch of Specialists, but Chickens & Goats both will be, so IMO we need to realise those GPP now or just accept that we'll lose them. We should avoid a Scientist though, since we'll have high likelihood from Chickens and guaranteed from Goats.

An alternative would be to abandon Physics for now and use the GS to kick off our 1-man GA; generate the GP from Llamas and Chickens for the 2-man GA and then the following GS from Goats bulbs us Physics or goes into storage for 3-man GA.

I don't think that a full-scale attack on anyone in the near future is really feasible, but maybe we can skirmish here and there with limited goals. An island raid with the primary goal of scoring the 6xp (yes, you were right) needed for the next GG seems a decent objective.

PS: your EPs are still going to REM.

must have been one of those "I'm staring at the screen and I think I'll do this and I'm staring at the screen and I'm sure I'm pressing the buttons and I'm staring at the screen and it really is the best idea and now it's done I'll exit out of the menu and I'm staring at the screen and well it's definitely a good idea and now I'm logging out, but it hasn't actually been done" moments.

[OT4E]

Libraries on islands = OK. We have 6 theatres, and we are not short in hammers.

Ships = OK. We indees need a lost and it is the stopper for any of our attack. I think we need SotLs near possible front lines and mobile group of frigates, privateers and galleons in the middle.

Still going for Physics = OK. GS for GA I think is not a good choice. With airships we will be able to push enemy fleet away and win perform some local operations, like purging DZ from islands.

Last turn you invested into Biology, so I think we must stick to it after Physics and keep some farms though we have started reworking many of them. New cities require 3 farm each to grow, whip infrastructure, army and still be high when we start industrializing.

About GPPs I do not think we need to bother about them much yet. GP from Goats will come soon, while those from Lhamas/Chickens are the question of 30+ turns. Lhamas can also keep 3-4 specialists, why not? Its circle consists of almost only green tiles and it has plenty of extra food.

[Dreylin]

t307 -

Rats:


& Canaries


Should be ~900b into Physics at EoT, so can trickle the rest in over the remaining turns.

Drafted Donkeys, Ducks & Cats.

[OT4E]

DZ kicked our settler with his culture:


We need to keep more in Goldfish btw not to let him take if from the darkness.
Also it seems that you didnt understand that we we needed to invest 808 of base science investe MORE in Physics, but not overall. It means that we need to spend 1 more turn on 60% in it (~400 base science).

[Dreylin]

You're right, I hadn't understood the beaker requirement, thanks for clarifying.

Tactical mistake not to play after Donovan, I guess. We have a couple of choices for the Settler; plant 8 of the hill on the South coast or 88 of the hill on the N coast, or preserve the Desert hill spot and plant on the Rice or back on the mainland. Not sure what I favour right now.

More defenses will probably require us to actually build some Rifles since we're not Drafting the nearby Core cities. I was trying to balance between the new city and Goldfish.

[OT4E]

It was a bad spot anyway, I was joking about planting this. Return settler to mainland, we have plenty of good choices to plant.

And DZ's island city is one of the possible targets. We wont have to deal with his cannons if he ever built those. With airships we will gain control over inner sea between us and can switch on BGN right after we make peace with DZ. If he doesnt give it us, it wont make us any trouble, I think.

[OT4E]

Here is how I see the attack scenario:

1. We now pull privateers and galleons we have to the Goldfish. Also start pulling Cavalry back. Care about BGN's explorer, we shall not let him see retreating forces.

2. Workers build fort near the Goldfish. It serves for 2 purposes: extra airship base and hidden spot to attack from.


3. What stuff do we need to produce for attack?
In my view it is the following:
- each coastal city starting from Gesse to Goldfish produces 1 galleon and 1 frigate, smth like +6 galleons and +4 frigates total.
- we whip cavalry in Rabbits, Lhamas, Cats, Guniea Pigs (basically 4-5 from each city with stables, it is 2x 2pop whips or 3x 1 pop whip)
- we whip airships in the far cities including new ones, airship costs 64 hammers so it is just 1 pop whip. We need many airships 8-12 in attack and at least 1 in each direction for scouting.

4. On lets say T313 we start operation against DZ. It can consists of just few Galleons, (4-5?) we dont need much to take out his city on stone, but we must be ready to fight his fleet. Rifles can do it, I think we shall maximize the number of Cavalry we have to attack on BGN. T314 we take his island city from sea, I think it is better than wasting time unloading, I believe with airships we can do it with minimal loses. But if he manages to reinforce it we of course unload and siege it as usual.

DZ realizes that there is no way for him to take islands back neither he can do us anything by direct attack and agrees to make peace.

5. On T316 we get in position to start raid against BGN. By this time we gather all the fleet together and get some siege also.

6. T317 we unload into his forest. If he fortifies there, then we will have to lose 1 turn unloading on the nearby tile.


7. On T318-319 we take the city with enough cavalries left to take cap on T319-320


BGN has just 1 city we do not see and you can see that there are almost no cities around his cap. It is unusual city density imho and it can serve us well. In general it means that we can get rid of his culture pressure easily. Also his other cities are pretty weak, literally draft them just once and they cant produce anything else. PetrPoroshenko is cottaged, 2 cities are on islands. I do not see how can he make our life harder. We smoke him out of the islands and use lake as a water route once again.


What do you think?

[Dreylin]

Broad brushstrokes, the plan seems OK, but I have some concerns on the details - particularly the Donovan phase:

He's being pretty active with his Explorer - see it watching the straights - and the Fort tile is visible from the Tundra Forest hill, so we're going to have trouble hiding all our preparations from him. The only way to hide most of it is to pop 3rd ring at Goldfish, but that's not feasible really, since I think we haven't built the Theatre there yet.

Aha, the other solution is to plant 2 from the Wines (or on Wines) and then pop borders to seal off the whole North of the island. Conveniently we have a Settler ready to go.

Next concern is the size and status of his fleet. Need to check if he's built any drydocks on that coast and then get a Spy down there to make sure we know the size (or we wait for Airships to do that).

My main concern though is that Silver city gives us an advance air and naval base that can hit his core, and I don't see that he can afford to let us keep it. Even with a Peace Treaty, he's got to expect that we'll come back at him again in 10t (which we probably would) so there's little incentive for him to accept a Peace Treaty. Maybe if we raze it and replant 6 from Crabs he'd be more amenable, but I have my doubts.

Maybe we need to take a look at full confrontation with Donovan as an alternative?

[OT4E]

Planting on wine or 2 from wine is fine with me. It is not the best place to settle, but if it can conceal our coming fleet it worths settler. Also it looks naturally, that pissed off settler goes to the first possible place.

Next concern is the size and status of his fleet. Need to check if he's built any drydocks on that coast and then get a Spy down there to make sure we know the size (or we wait for Airships to do that).

Donovan has 1 drydock at least, but if we start swarming ships he wont be able to compete with us. If we have spies around, let's explore. Do not wait for airships. They must appear on the turn before we attack, we cant make it look like we are paying too much attention.

My main concern though is that Silver city gives us an advance air and naval base that can hit his core, and I don't see that he can afford to let us keep it. Even with a Peace Treaty, he's got to expect that we'll come back at him again in 10t (which we probably would) so there's little incentive for him to accept a Peace Treaty. Maybe if we raze it and replant 6 from Crabs he'd be more amenable, but I have my doubts.

Donovan will never forget us this, no matter if we raze city or keep it. But what can he do with our city on island if we put 5-6 rifles in? Take it from sea or unload cannons and pray that we have no cavalry around? We will be informed about any of his possible actions in advance if we succeed with our main plan.

Maybe we need to take a look at full confrontation with Donovan as an alternative?

This is possible too especially if he makes some mistakes, like putting his fleet under strike or trying to walk to us by land.